Cheesesteak Review #74: Mr. V’s Steaks of Philadelphia

First off I apologize for the lack of reviews. Over the last two years I have started to lose interest in writing reviews. I haven’t lost interest in cheesesteaks but I am starting to lose interest in trying new cheesesteaks.

For this review I traveled to Northeast Philly around the Franklin Mills Mall to try a cheesesteak from Mr V’s Steaks. I had a little trouble finding the place as all of the roads around the mall get kind of confusing, but I ultimately found it tucked away in a little strip mall off of Franklin Mills Boulevard. The directions I originally had were wrong and that’s the main reason why I had difficulty in finding Mr V’s Steaks. As usual I ordered a cheesesteak with provolone cheese and fried onions.

Bread-I believe the bread that they used was a Liscio hoagie roll and not the standard steak roll that most restaurants use for cheesesteaks. The bread was probably the best part of this cheesesteak, which isn’t saying much. The roll was extremely fresh and it did a good job housing all of the ingredients. It’s kind of hard to screw up the bread unless it isn’t fresh. I guess the only issue with the bread was that there way too much. Let me explain that statement a little further. There was barely any meat, cheese or fried onions on this cheesesteak that it almost tasted like I was just eating a hoagie roll and nothing else.

Cheese-The cheese was only average. They only included a few slices of provolone and it was barely melted. From the picture below you can see how the cheese was just huge pieces. They also only placed the cheeses on one side of the bun and then just placed the meat on the other side. I guess they expected the meat to melt the cheese, but it didn’t. For a good cheesesteak I always look for cheese to be melted throughout the entire sandwich.

Meat-One word: terrible. It was bland tasting and dry. Besides that there was fat and gristle on a good amount of the pieces of the meat included in the cheesesteak. The pieces of meat they used were huge slabs of meat that were extremely tough to chew. I guess the only good part about the meat was that it was all evenly cooked and there weren’t any burnt or under-cooked pieces. I like meat in my cheesesteak to be diced, but I can deal with big pieces of meat as long as it has a good taste to it, and isn’t too tough to chew.

Amount-Probably the worst thing about this cheesesteak was the overall size of the sandwich. The roll was your typical size of around 10 inches. The amount of meat included was a joke. The same goes for the amount of cheese. The only thing there was plenty of was the fried onions. More or less what I ate was a 10 inch fried onion sandwich. This cheesesteak would not fill anyone up. I’m glad I also ordered a side of fries or else I would have left this place hungrier than I was when I walked in.

Fried Onions-The fried onions in this sandwich were pretty decently cooked and they had a nice taste to them. However there were too many of them in comparison to the amount of meat and cheese. Much like the cheese they were not mixed throughout the entire cheesesteak either. They were just placed on top of the sandwich after they added the meat and cheese to the bread.

In all the cheesesteak from Mr V’s Steaks was pretty terrible. When the best part of a cheesesteak is the roll produced from a bakery, and fried onions you have issues. I read plenty of good reviews online for this place but I really don’t understand how anyone could like this cheesesteak. So for now I can’t recommend a cheesesteak from Mr V’s Steaks. Mr V’s does have a fairly large menu with pizza and other sandwiches and it would be pretty impossible for them to screw everything up as badly as they did this cheesesteak so if you are around Franklin Mills Mall and come across Mr V’s Steaks try something else off of their menu. Trust me on this. The french fries were great and you get a ton of them, so if you aren’t too hungry just order a side of them and you will probably leave the place pretty full. There is plenty of parking around Mr V’s Steaks as they are located in a strip mall with plenty of vacant storefronts. They also have a fair amount of indoor seating available. The inside of Mr V’s is pretty cool because there is lots of sports memorabilia, but unfortunately I do not take the decor of the establishment I am reviewing into effect when rating a cheesesteak or else they may have gotten a much high rating.

Mr. V’s is co-owned by former Frusco’s owner Pete Varanvage. The rolls are from Perri’s. Craig LaBan reviewed this place @ 4yrs. ago and loved their “ZIG” sandwich; garlicy greens,two types of provolone, roasted long hots and fresh rib eye (sliced on premises) not chopped into pieces. Quote C. L. “It’s so juicey that it exhibits the finest trait a hot steak can have- good drip.”
I went to this place after reading his review in the Inquirer and found his review accurate. It was very good indeed. Now, what you saw and tasted are different from what I remember. Perhaps things have changed for the worst, because that steak pictured sure is skimpy. By the way, while there I also had their “HEUSER” sandwich, a cured- meat Italian with homemade olive spread. It’s their version of a New Orleans style “Muffalata”, on a Perri long roll, very good also.

Thanks for checking out my blog. From your comment it sounds like I would have been better off ordering something other than their cheesesteak. If I’m around Franklin Mills again I might give them another shot. I’ve never heard of Perri’s before so I’ll look them up. Overall though their cheesesteak was pretty terrible. I hope I just went there on an off day.